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Top of Mind Awareness

Top of Mind Awareness Why “Out of Sight” Really Does Equal “Out of Mind”

Why do we naturally associate certain products and services with particular brands or people? Why would a company invest so much into putting their name in front of you on a consistent basis?

The answer is that they want to occupy that space between your ears (not that there’s actually “space” between your ears’) There is a part of the brain that uniquely ties together subconscious and conscious thought with the decision making process.

Our brains store information that can be retrieved when necessary, and the closer that information lies to our conscious thought, the easier it is for our brains to grab it and use it. So, the time will come when an informed decision must be made and we must rely on the things we know and remember in order to make a choice.

This is where Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA) comes in. The information that “floats to the top” during this decision making process, usually through repetition, is what we use to make what we consider to be a proper decision. You can begin to see why it is important to occupy that space.

Now, let’s dig a little bit deeper into the decision making process and break it down. Every day we make literally thousands of decisions. Go to the grocery store and you may make a thousand decisions, both conscious and subconscious, during your visit. Where should I park? Shopping cart or basket? How should I navigate the aisles? Which pieces of fruit look the freshest? What prices are lowest? Are those two products comparable? Which checkout line is going to move the fastest? Paper or plastic? You get the idea.

Consider that shopping trip. Why did you make the particular decisions that you made? Based on knowledge that you had, either through previous experience, information you researched beforehand, or logical reasoning, you decided what the best choice was to arrive at the desired result. The reality is that although you are making the decisions, they are heavily influenced by all sorts of outside factors.

You are especially predisposed to making certain buying decisions because you are influenced by the marketing and branding of a variety of products and services. Your grocery store trip all started with the decision of which store to visit. So if you walk out of the store with a $150 grocery bill, was it worth it for the store to influence your decision to shop there? You bet it was. The people at Doritos are also happy that their Super Bowl ad paid off, judging from the 2 bags of Cool Ranch and Original Flavor in your cart.

On the other hand, think about some of the products that may have come out with great fanfare, only to be gone within a few months or a year. The initial marketing push was tremendous, getting customers to try, and perhaps even like, the product. Maybe the product was just bad, or maybe they overspent, but the brand was not strong enough to maintain that initial surge and soon people simply forgot about it even if they liked it. By the way, pass me another piece of that McPizza. Remember that one? Most people don’t.

The moral of the story is to stay inside the space between their ears. Be part of their Top of Mind Awareness. If you can stay there, and you are offering something of value, you will thrive. When it comes time for that person to make a decision, they will think of you and all your hard work will pay off.

I hope you have truly enjoyed our “Building Referrals and Repeat Business” series, and that you were able to learn something in the process. Even if you already were aware of everything in the series, maybe it jarred something loose or served as a good refresher course. Either way, everyone here at Follow Your Customer strongly believes in the theories and practices laid out in this series. If there is any way that we could be of further assistance to you, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

If you are considering a system to help you build strong, trusting relationships between you and your clients, we would love to talk with you. We’ve put a lot of thought and hard work into the Follow Your Customer system with the theory of creating methods of building and strengthening customer relationships, not just managing them. We look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions or comments that you would like to share.